PARIS – A meeting of G-7 nations on the environment begins in Paris on April 23 but climate change has been left off the agenda to avoid a row with the United States.
The office of France’s ecology minister Monique Barbut said the two-day meeting would focus on “less contentious issues” in an effort to appease the largest and most powerful G-7 member.
“We chose not to address the climate issue head-on… because the United States’ positions on this subject are well known,” the ministry said.
“We wanted to prioritise G-7 unity, particularly to protect this forum.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has withdrawn the United States from global agreements on climate change and weakened environmental protections since he returned to office in 2025.
France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom are sending their environment ministers to the meeting of the Group of 7 industrialised economies.
Washington will be represented by Ms Usha-Maria Turner, assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Ms Barbut’s office said attendees would discuss themes including ocean conservation, biodiversity funding, and the transformation of dry areas into desert.
Activists were critical of the decision to leave climate off the agenda.
Ms Gaia Febvre from activist group Climate Action Network said “a G-7 moving at the pace of the United States cannot claim to respond to the crises of the century”.
“By yielding to pressure, it weakens collective action and renounces its potential leading role,” she told AFP.
It takes place just days before more than 50 countries meet in Colombia for the first-ever global conference dedicated to phasing out fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change.
France is spearheading an initiative to raise public and private finance for the protection of biodiversity and hopes to win the backing of other G-7 nations.
Ms Barbut’s ministry hopes to announce US$800 million (S$1.02 billion) in funding for national parks in around 20 African countries, according to sources close to the matter.
WWF France advocacy director Jean Burkard welcomed this inclusion on the G-7 agenda but said any funding “must be additional and not compensate” for cuts elsewhere to state budgets for nature.
The G-7 meeting also hopes to reach a political declaration on desertification and security, while sessions on oceans will look to strengthen an alliance on marine protected areas.
Other sessions are planned, including on water pollution, while a visit to Fontainebleau woodland south of Paris is also scheduled on April 23 as part of a session dedicated to forests. AFP